If you’ve ever found an old obituary while researching your family tree, you probably know the feeling.
There it is. Your ancestor’s name. Their date of death. Perhaps the name of a spouse or a few children.
You add the information to your family tree and move on to the next record.
But wait.
Don’t move on just yet.
An obituary can be one of the most useful little documents you’ll find in your genealogy research. It may look like a simple announcement about someone’s death, but tucked inside those few paragraphs can be clues about family relationships, where people lived, what they did for a living, the organizations they belonged to, and where you should look next.
And sometimes the really interesting information isn’t about the person who died at all. It’s about everyone around them.
So the next time you find an obituary, slow down and read it carefully. Here are five clues I always look for.
1. Relationships — and the people you didn’t know existed
This is probably the most obvious clue in an obituary, but it’s also one of the most valuable.
Obituaries often name spouses, children, parents, siblings, grandchildren and sometimes even nieces, nephews and cousins.
That can be genealogy gold.
You may already know that your great-grandfather married Mary, for example. But his obituary might tell you that he was survived by “his wife, Mary; two sons, Robert and William; a daughter, Margaret; and a sister, Helen of Boston.”
Suddenly, you have three children and a sister you didn’t know about. And that sister might be the key to finding the next generation of your family.
Don’t simply record the names. Look at the relationships.
If an obituary says “daughter Jane Smith of Toronto,” that gives you a name and a location. If it says “brother George Jones and sister-in-law Margaret of Chicago,” you now have another family connection to investigate.
Pay attention to wording, too.
“Survived by” usually gives you living relatives, while “predeceased by” can provide the names of people who died earlier.
A sentence such as “He was predeceased by his wife, Elizabeth, and daughter Anne” can lead you to two additional death records.
What to do with the clues
Make a list of every person mentioned in the obituary.
Then ask:
- Who is this person?
- What is their relationship to my ancestor?
- Where did they live?
- When were they born?
- When did they die?
- Can I find them in a census, marriage record or newspaper?
And don’t forget the in-laws.
A brother-in-law or sister-in-law can be extremely useful when you’re trying to identify a family in census records. Sometimes you’ll find your elusive ancestor living in someone else’s household rather than under their own name.
2. Residences — follow the family around
Old obituaries can be surprisingly good at telling us where people lived.
You might find something as simple as: “Mrs. Brown died at her home in Kingston.”
That confirms a residence.
But an obituary might also say that she was born in Quebec, raised in Ottawa, lived for many years in Montreal and had recently moved to Kingston to be closer to her daughter.
Now you have a little migration story, and migration stories are incredibly helpful in genealogy.
If you’re struggling to find an ancestor in a particular census, knowing that they previously lived somewhere else gives you another place to search.
Look closely at the locations attached to relatives, too.
“Survived by son David of Vancouver and daughter Susan of Halifax” tells you where those children were living at the time of the death. That may help you distinguish them from other people with the same name.
Try this
Take every place mentioned in the obituary and write it down.
Then put the places in chronological order if you can.
For example:
Born: Sherbrooke
Married: Montreal
Lived: Quebec City
Later years: Ottawa
You now have a research roadmap.
Search newspapers, directories, census records, land records and city directories for your ancestor in each location.
And remember that addresses can be especially useful. If an obituary gives a street address for the funeral home, church or family home, search newspapers around that address. You may find other family members connected to the same household.
3. Occupations — your ancestor was more than a name
One of my favourite things about genealogy is discovering what our ancestors actually did with their days.
An obituary can help with that.
It might tell you that Great-Uncle George was a farmer, schoolteacher, carpenter, railway employee, merchant or factory worker.
But sometimes it goes further.
Perhaps the obituary says that he worked for the same company for 42 years. Or that he owned a local grocery store. Maybe he was a postmaster, served as a school principal or operated a farm that had been in the family for generations.
Those details can open entirely new research doors.
If you discover that your ancestor worked for a particular railway, for example, you can search for employment records, railway newsletters, photographs or newspaper articles.
If she was a teacher, there may be school records, teacher directories or newspaper stories about her students and school.
If he owned a business, search the local newspapers for advertisements, business announcements and community events.
Don’t overlook the wording
An obituary might say that someone was “retired from” a company rather than simply giving an occupation.
That company name matters. It gives you a specific organization to investigate.
And if the person worked somewhere for decades, search the newspapers for anniversary celebrations, retirement parties, promotions and community awards. You may find much more information about your ancestor than you expected.
4. Organizations and community connections
This is one of those clues that can easily be overlooked.
Obituaries often mention organizations that were important to the person. Maybe your ancestor belonged to the local church, a veterans’ organization, a fraternal society, the Grange, a women’s club, a historical society, a volunteer fire department or a professional association.
Perhaps the obituary says that she was a member of the church for 60 years.
That one sentence gives you somewhere to look next. Church records may contain membership information, anniversary celebrations or photographs. Local organizations may have newsletters, minutes or historical publications.
And organizations can tell you something else that is just as valuable:
Who your ancestor spent time with.
People tend to build relationships through the organizations they belong to. Those relationships can help you find photographs, letters, newspaper articles and even family stories.
If your ancestor was a member of a local historical society, for example, search the society’s records and old newspapers. You might discover that he gave a presentation or helped organize an event. They might even have donated an old family photograph.
Suddenly, your ancestor has become a real person in the community rather than just another name on a family tree.
5. The clues that point somewhere else
This may be the most important clue of all because an obituary often gives you research leads rather than answers.
It may mention the church where the funeral was held.
The cemetery where the person was buried.
The funeral home that handled the arrangements.
A hometown.
A former employer.
A spouse’s maiden name.
A sibling living in another province.
A family farm.
A military service record.
A university.
A favourite organization.
Each one is a little arrow pointing you toward another record.
Suppose your ancestor’s obituary says the funeral was held at St. Andrew’s Church and burial took place in Maple Grove Cemetery.
Don’t stop there.
Look for church records.
Look for the cemetery.
Look for a gravestone.
Look for other people buried nearby.
You may discover parents, siblings or other relatives in the same cemetery.
Or perhaps the obituary says, “In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the local hospital.”
That tells you something about the causes or organizations that mattered to the family. It may even lead to a newspaper article about a memorial donation. Or it could also indicate what specific disease the person died of.
Read the obituary like a detective
Here’s the trick I use with almost every genealogy record: Read it twice.
The first time, read it like a normal person.
The second time, read it like a genealogist.
Circle every name.
Underline every place.
Highlight every occupation.
Make a note of every organization, church, cemetery, funeral home, school and business.
Then ask yourself one simple question: “Where could I find more information about this?”
That question can turn a short obituary into hours of fascinating research.
And don’t assume that everything in an obituary is correct. Remember that obituaries were usually written by someone else, often a family member who may not have known every detail. Ages can be wrong. Relationships can be simplified. Names can be misspelled.
Use the obituary as a clue and then try to confirm important information with other records.
Your ancestor’s obituary is only the beginning
An old obituary may be only a few paragraphs long, but those paragraphs can contain a surprising amount of family history.
You might discover a previously unknown sibling.
A child who moved across the country.
A long-forgotten occupation.
A church your family attended for generations.
A business your ancestor owned.
Or simply a town where your family lived for a few years before disappearing from the records.
And that’s why I love obituaries.
They don’t just tell us that someone died.
They tell us where to look next.
So the next time you find an obituary tucked away in your genealogy research, don’t just copy the name and date of death into your family tree.
Stop.
Read every word.
There may be five, ten or twenty little clues hiding in those paragraphs—and one of them might be the clue that finally unlocks the next piece of your family’s story.